《Let There be Darkness》中的设定的收集（2）(31)

Taggart started. He wondered how Pitts could present such precise data. For his own part, the post-atomic days had been a wild, chaotic struggle for survival -- until he had been miraculously rescued from that chaos by the Zarr. Had Pitts been instrumental in that rescue? Taggart more than suspected so. He had known Pitts before, during those far-off years when universities and other centers of learning had existed on earth. While Taggart had engaged himself in the study of the human mind in an effort to unravel the strange curse that seemed to forever bar mankind from any genuine happiness or fulfillment, Pitts's estrangement had taken the form of an intense study of geology, evolution, and especially astronomy -- subjects seemingly chosen for the purpose of keeping humanity at a comfortable distance. Finally there had come the time when Pitts had vanished into the vast, forested Canadian wilderness for a purpose never openly stated -- and, when after many years he and Taggart met once again, it had been under very strange conditions. . . .

"The next war will probably ruin the planet," Pitts was saying. "Now, I propose this: since the human race is bound to annihilate itself sooner or later, let us wipe them out ourselves, now -- with weapons that will leave the planet itself unspoiled. Thus the world will be saved for more deserving races to utilize."